Invigilation time again!
Deep joy, hours at a time spent being really quiet whilst watching kids sit and look bored because they’ve finished a one and a half hour paper in forty-five minutes and don’t know what to do.
Special Mechanic turned up for an exam he wasn’t supposed to do. There wasn’t a space for him and we told him but he insisted so we got a desk and chair and sat him down.
He spent a minute looking at the paper and put his hand up.
‘Yes Special Mechanic?’
‘I don’t understand any of this.’
‘Perhaps that’s why your name wasn’t down for this exam?’
‘Oh…can I go then?’
‘No.’
‘Can I have some paper to draw on?’
‘Ok, here you are….’
‘Erm…….do you have a pen or pencil?’
I walked away and amused myself for the next hour watching him trying to keep himself occupied in silence.
I was in the small room with my numpty kids (see Special Mechanic above). If I’d been in the main hall I could have at least played ‘Invigilator it!’ The idea is that you slowly make your way towards another patrolling invigilator and when you get up to them you tap them on the shoulder and say, very quietly in their ear, ‘you’re it.’
Then you wander away and let them stalk their victim. They’re not allowed to get you back, which would be too easy. Once the game’s underway all the invigilators are warily circling away from each other because no one’s sure who’s it any more. Getting called by a student is a nerve wracking experience because you’re forced to be static and you can see the ‘it’ heading towards you.
It relieves the tedium I suppose. Four weeks of this to go……….
